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OXNARD, Calif. — One word kept coming up from Cowboys players, coaches and owner as they discussed a less than scintillating 3-0 victory over Oakland to open the pre-season.

Don’t worry. It has more than four letters.

Vanilla. The scheme on both sides of the ball was basic. This game was more about assessing individual performances than it was a validation of the offensive and defensive schemes.

This doesn’t mean the Cowboys were making excuses for an offense that was inept for large portions of the evening.

“We’ve got to execute better offensively,” tight end Jason Witten said of a first-team offense that scratched out just 22 yards on 11 snaps. “We’ve got all the other stuff — playing hard, communicating. We’ve got to execute.”

This doesn’t mean that head coach Jason Garrett was willing to overlook the 12 penalties that cost his team 91 yards.

“They hurt us,” Garrett said. “That’s an obvious area where we need to improve, really, throughout our football team.”

The players had Tuesday off. But their performance underscored how much work remains for this team to get ready for the regular season opener in 22 days.

“Everything was really vanilla,” safety Gerald Sensabaugh said of the shutout.